1. Field of the Invention
The following description relates to an apparatus and a method for recognizing an activity of daily living (ADL), and more specifically to an apparatus and a method for recognizing an ADL, which automatically and accurately recognizing an ADL.
2. Description of the Related Art
Activities of daily living are the things we normally do in daily living including any daily activity we perform for self-care, work, homemaking, and leisure. Health professionals routinely refer to the ability or inability to perform ADL as a measurement of the functional status of a person. This measurement is useful for assessing the elderly, the mentally ill, those with chronic diseases, and others, in order to evaluate what type of health care services an individual may need.
Activities of daily living include transferring from bed to chair, and back, eating, dressing and undressing, walking and using instruments with hands. Activities of daily living include instrumental activities of daily living.
ADL is used in a medical treatment field so as to measure how much the elderly need the help from others. ADL may include the following general activities—bathing, dressing, using the toilet, transferring, maintaining continence, eating, and face washing. And ADL may include the following instrumental activities—make-up, housework, meal preparation, laundry, using transportation, managing money, using the telephone, shopping, community mobility, and taking medications, for example.
To measure ADL, the motion of a moving subject should be accurately recognized. In the case of an instrumental activity, the object of the instrumental activity should be accurately recognized. Depending on the state of the moving subject, the motion is varied in various manners. Therefore, there are difficulties in accurately recognizing ADL.